Friday, 28 December 2012

The Golden Pint Responses

I’ve had a few Golden Pint responses emailed to me, so
here they are. There’s also a list of all the other ones which I’ve seen
online. Now I hope someone has got a few hours free to churn some data and
figure out if there are any overall winners worth mentioning?!

Redemption Trinity.
I always like to start my drinking with a pint of something drinkable and low
abv to get me in mood. This is always in good condition. Marble Pint and
Fyne Jarl are other great starters (Marble Pint would win this if i could get
it more often). There are
certainly beers that are more 'exciting' but I know these will start me off
well. And they never bore me.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Brodie’s London Lager.
Made me very happy on a very hot day at a packed pub.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Jandrain Jandrenouille
- VI Wheat

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Heady Topper. Can't
describe how incredible this was. I'd happily pay way over the odds for another
can. Or maybe make my next holiday location. Vermont.

Best Overall Beer

Magic Rock
Cannonball. More recently on Keg it has been superb.

Best Label

Wild Beer. Stylish.
Clean. Consistent.

Best Pumpclip

Kernel. No effort
required. Yet gets away with it. Love it.

Best UK Brewery

It has to be Magic
Rock. Great core range and new additions have been more adventurous and no doubt
will continue to be.

Best Overseas Brewery

Hmmm tough one.
Firestone Walker. Tried a few beers and they have blown me away. Double Double in
particular. So impressive.

Pub/Bar of the Year

The Hope in
Carshalton. Doing so much despite being in village close to London. Passion.
Enthusiasm. Great beer. Great community pub. A festival every month.

Supermarket of the Year

Waitrose. It has a
fairly good range and appears to be adapting a little.

Independent Retailer.

Cobbetts in
Dorking. Great little shop. Enthusiastic. Always helpful.

Online Retailer of the Year

Beeritz. Never let
me down

Best Beer Book or Magazine

Brew your Own
magazine

In 2013 I’d most like to...

I’m going to
Mikkeller in May. And making our first commercial beer in January... Two dreams ticked
off already

Greene King 5X at GBBF. A revelation. Why GK
keep this beer locked up is anyone's guess.

Best UK Bottled or Canned Beer

Thornbridge Kipling. Grapefruit in a glass.
Consistently challenging and drinkable in equal measure.

Best Overseas Draught Beer

Mahr's Ungespundet. So technically it's been
a couple of years since I had it on draught. But no foreign draught beer I've
had since has come close.

Best Overseas Bottled or Canned Beer

Bear Republic Racer 5. It was love at first
sight when we met at Byron. Where had you been all my life before then?

Best Overall Beer

Fuller's Chiswick. OK so I haven't nominated
it for any of the categories above. There are beers that shout louder and
dazzle more. But there is no beer which is better.

Best Pumpclip or Label

Pumpclips by Truefitt (http://www.truefittbrewing.co.uk/). I should declare an interest as I grew up on Teesside
so there's an element of nostalgia in seeing the words Erimus and Ironopolis.
But I think the simple, eye-catching designs are great.

Best UK Brewery

Fuller's. They pump out God knows how much
beer each year and could take the easy route. But as well as keeping an
amazingly consistent core range, a few of their specials this year have really
impressed (Wild River, Traitors' Gate on draught, not to mention their Past
Masters series).

BrewDog Camden. It pains me to give this to
somewhere that doesn't serve cask beer out of "ideology". But what
wins it for me is the bar staff with their knowledge and enthusiasm,
particularly when asked the question "What lager have you got?" If
anyone will get the young hipsters off Peroni, it's these guys.

Beer Festival of the Year

GBBF, solely because of the decision to move
back to Olympia. Felt like they'd put the "Festival" back in to GBBF.

Supermarket of the Year

Waitrose. Not the widest range but
well-chosen. And it's through them that I first came across Thornbridge
Kipling.

Independent Retailer of the Year

Utobeer probably edge it. Always my first
stop in London if I'm looking for a few interesting bottles.

Online Retailer of the Year

Beers of Europe, who finally updated their, er,
"retro" site and made it a pleasure to use. Others probably serve a
few more specialist tastes but these guys have all the main players, and the
prices are very competitive.

Best Beer Book or Magazine

London Drinker. Always a pleasure when it
pops through the letter box. Pleasingly irreverent, and comprehensive when it
comes to what's going on in the London bar and brewing scene.

Best Beer Blog or Website

Boak and Bailey. In truth the recent trend
towards historical research isn't my sort of thing, but they consistently put a
new angle on things and question assumptions. (Nice to meet them too at GBBF
this year.)

Best Beer Twitterer

Pumpclip Parade. Fighting a lonely war with
the odds stacked against them. But by God it's a war that needs fighting.

Best Online Brewery Presence

No-one. Yes, one or two breweries probably
make the grade. But the huge majority of brewery websites are like something
done by a ten-year old. So I'm refusing to nominate anyone here as an entirely
futile protest. But it has made me feel better.

Food and Beer Pairing of the Year

Any Byron burger with anything on their craft
beer list. I would eat there every night if my wallet and waist line could
cope.

In 2013 I’d most like to...

Go on the Toer de Geuze. Which, with a bit of
luck and advance planning, I will.

Best Beer Tasting

A tasting of lambics organised by The Craft
Beer Co (at their original home in Clerkenwell). This was an event which didn't
patronise and went into some pretty obscure detail. But what shone most of all
was the passion of the guy who was giving the talk. Informative and
inspirational.

And
here are all the other Golden Pint entries that I’ve seen (There are probably
more, too...)